New Digs

I moved into a new apartment 5 days ago! It's a lovely little hole in the wall that i am proud to call my own. It's a bit expensive, lacking a bit of furniture, still a bit dusty, and a bit dark...but i love it just the same. Here are a few pictures...
After months of searching this place wasthe place fr a few reasons. First of all, the landlord is a friend of a friend, so i didn't have to give any money for a deposit and i didn't have to sign acontract for 6 months or anything like that. Which gives me the availavility to move out whenever i might need to. or want to. Secondly it was the cheapest deal with the most amount off furniture included. It came with a bed, fridge, and table and chairs included. that was much more than the emply caves i had been looking at. Apartments here don't come with stoves.
This weekend i had acouple people come over to know the apartment. I wanted to have some tea with hannah and lauren, but could only offer cold water. Improving on that a little bit for my Aunt Esthela, Marco y Lauri, Maria Fernanda y Valeria, y mi tio Bolivar I offered crystal light and cold water! Next house guests i have i might even offer them some chips and crystal light and cold water!

Birthday # 23

And I Pray

In honor of Viernes Santo (Holy Friday/Good Friday) guess what I did?! Learned some spanish Our Father’s and prayed with my grandmother. I was putting her to bed last night and she was telling me that I was a good girl. But then she paused and said, “But you don’t like to pray…” then looked to me for a response. And of course I didn’t want her to think I was a sinner, so I said, I don’t know how to pray…and quickly added, “In spanish.” Even though I don’t know how to pray, like for real, in English either. I think there are special words and poem things you are supposed to say. Or at least she uses that method. So She taught me how to make a cross with my fingers and cross myself and cross my forehead and mouth and heart. I said lots of words like Nuesto padre, pecadores, te ofrezco mi trabajo, mis palabras, mis obras. She was happier than a spring chicken after that little session!
I had fun too, but I hope this doesn’t turn into a new responsibility that I’ll have to study and practice and feel guilty for not doing…I’m already working on this language called spanish, and I don’t know if I can handle another called Catholocism…

Under this Same Roof

We coexist, but we live on different planets. Under this same roof, and yet a world away.

Through the Lense of Time

oil on paper, 2009

In la abuelita’s eyes everything is a bit altered. In la abuelita’s eyes every object is a jewel, an expensive treasure from her past life. These glasses are to be placed on her bedside table in case she should need them in the night. She hasn’t ever used them.
“Although I would like to clean the house, how can I deny her this palace of treasures? And must I insist that they serve no purpose? Or that a small crack and a loose screw devalue something so completely as to be thrown in the trash? That something old has less value than something new?

Dusty Details

oil on paper, 2008

I moved into a museum of family history and an altered universe when I set up studio in my 93 year-old grandmother’s house. Carmen Adolfina Carrión Coronel’s life in Ecuador has been a world away from mine in Northeastern Massachusetts—in distance, time, experiences and prerogative.

In examining the dusty details of her past life I have reconstructed experiences that she can’t remember she had. I’ve poured through albums and albums of photos that she can neither see nor remember. I’ve recorded hours of her stories. To ask whether they be fact or fiction would be irrelevant. One of my favorites include her selling the Virgin Mary a cup of honey while running away to a mountain town called Yungilla.

Carnaval in Baños and Ambato

Ambato and Baños were filled with espuma and fun. Everyone gets sprayed by this silly string stuff called kareoka. At least it's better than what happens in Cuenca. In Cuenca everyone throws water balloons at unsuspecting anyones. It is chaos. So we hightailed it to Ambato, the land of fruit and flowers. They had a huuuuge parade with floats just covered in fruit and flowers, murals of jesus in flower petals...and yet no fruit to eat... so i settled for pork because he was cooked with an apple in his mouth.

Speaking of killing animals, we went to a bull fight and Amy, a fellow teacher, cried. We probably should have just stuck to the chocolate fair and the art exposition, the parades and the kareoka, but we wanted the real experience.

Last picture is of the four of us. Amy, my cousins Maria Fernanda, Valeria, and then there's me.